Dennis Giles is hard to mistake.

A black man, he stands about 6 feet, 5 inches and weighs nearly 300 pounds.

But at his preliminary hearing Monday, Giles could not be identified by either the alleged victim or a witness in a suspected home invasion in Butler earlier this fall.

Dean Krelko and Roy Grosskopf told prosecutor Mark Lope that they did not recognize Giles as one of three suspects who forced their way into their apartment shortly before 1 a.m. Sept. 13.

Moments after the crime, however, both men had identified Giles as the hammer-wielding robber who attacked Krelko and stole two cell phones, according to police testimony.

Despite the witnesses’ inability Monday to identify Giles, District Judge Pete Shaffer ordered the defendant and his two alleged accomplices held for court in the case.

In addition to Giles, 38, of Pittsburgh, Todd A. Reed, 33, of Summit Township and Emily N. Sopel, 29, of Center Township are charged with robbery, burglary, conspiracy and trespass.

Giles is free on $75,000 bail and Sopel is free on nonmonetary bond. Reed is being held in the Butler County Prison on $30,000 bail.

Police accused the trio of breaking into the West Cunningham Street apartment where Krelko and Grosskopf live in separate sleeping rooms and confronting the 51-year-old Krelko.

Lt. James Hollobaugh testified that he was called to investigate the alleged home invasion. He was given descriptions of the suspects — a white woman, a white man and a large black man wearing a black shirt.

The woman had driven away in a vehicle but the two men were seen walking in the area of North Chestnut and West Jefferson streets.

That’s where Hollobaugh said police stopped one of the men, later identified as Giles. The other man was gone.

Hollobaugh said officers placed Giles in the back of a police car, which drove him back to the crime scene to see if the Krelko and Grosskopf could identify him.

“They both identified him,” Hollobaugh testified.

Later, Giles was searched and found with two of Krelko’s cell phones.

Krelko told police that night, according to court documents, that the intruders claimed he owed them money and demanded it from him.

He said the white man hit him with an upright sweeper that was in the apartment. The black man, he told police that night, struck him with a hammer.

Hollobaugh testified that Krelko had visible injuries including bloody bumps and lumps on his head and face.

Grosskopf, 29, was sleeping in his room at the time of the break-in. He told investigators that night that he heard Krelko yell for help, and saw Krelko under attack. He tried to called 911 on his cell phone.

The police complaint also noted that Grosskopf claimed the black man with the hammer warned him not to call police.

But in their testimony Monday, neither Grosskopf nor Krelko could recall that the black man had the hammer.

At the hearing, they also claimed they could not identify Giles, who was seated just several feet from them in the courtroom, as one of the robbers that night.

Grosskopf in part blamed his poor memory on prescription medication he takes for several ailments including bipolar disorder, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and a sleep disorder.

“I’m highly medicated,” he testified.

When Krelko told Lope he did not recognize Giles, the prosecutor reminded him that he had identified Giles for police the night of the alleged attack.

“I seen a black guy in a police car and I said, ‘That’s him,’” Krelko testified. “But today, I don’t see the black guy I saw in the police car.”

Lope, meanwhile, asked Krelko and Grosskopf if they had been threatened about testifying. Both said no.

Both, however, identified Sopel as one of the suspects they saw that night. But neither man could identify Reed.

Hollobaugh testified that he charged Reed only after Sopel, following her arrest, implicated him in the crime.

The officer during cross-examination admitted police had no other evidence linking Reed to the alleged home invasion.